One Piece What-Ifs: A Compendium
by King Abbadon
Summary: In here we explore interesting points of departure for the world of One Piece, as well as their immediate and long term ramifications. Need an interesting idea for how to change things? Want to offer your own opinion on the matter? Look no further.
1. WI: The East Blue heats up earlier?

**As a warning, this story/compendium will have spoilers, and lots of them. If you're trying to avoid these types of things, you've been warned.**

 **What If: The East Blue heats up earlier?**

Looking back on it now, the East Blue was just somewhere for Luffy to get his legs under him, so to speak, and find interesting people to join him. The only time he arguably sweated it out was against Arlong, and the only true threat to him being a Logia in the form of Smoker. Or his own gung-ho style, as also seen when he almost gets executed in Loguetown. It was an interesting time when the Straw Hats never appeared to face overwhelming odds and they arrived just in the nick of time to stop the incoming calamity on the local island/fish-faced restaurant. But Luffy wasn't always a juggernaut, and truth be told these villains aren't complete jokes vis-à-vis everything else in the East Blue; what if these guys had made more waves, long before Luffy was out and about building a crew?

Let's consider the following. Buggy the Clown was quite literally messing around in the East Blue terrorizing small towns. Kuro of a Hundred Plans is spending his time lying low avoiding trouble. Don Krieg is a man with a fleet full of pirates that feels like he's a big fish, albeit in a small pond. Arlong has his proclaimed dreams of breaking out of Conomi Island and establishing an 'Arlong Empire' and is considered a legitimately strong pirate even in terms of the Grand Line.

As we've seen every time these guys make a move, the local towns are completely ill-prepared to deal with ill-intentioned pirates and are for all intents and purposes at their mercy. Outside of Smoker who's stuck as the garrison leader of Loguetown, and Hina, the strongest Marine to be found for miles is Axe-Hand Morgan. Yeah. The East Blue should be in flames, but I suppose the ever-present threat of making too many waves steadies these pirates' hand from going all-out in the pirating. But who's to say that one slight alteration doesn't send one of these pirate crews somewhere…..unfortunate?

It's not hard to believe that either Buggy or Krieg could have stumbled on vulnerable settlements such as Syrup Village or Dawn Island and then proceeding to raid them. Kuro too, before he went into his cover as Klahadore. And finally, Arlong is far and away the greatest threat to anything and everything in the East Blue; if he were to decide that he's gathered enough tax money to launch his 'Arlong Empire', or simply got bored of sitting around it's not hard to imagine him striking terror throughout much of the East Blue, or perhaps even extending his 'taxes' to other island, leaving him the ruler of a criminal empire spanning much of the East Blue. As we've seen, Marines assigned to the East Blue border on corrupt at best and being proper criminals themselves.

Why should any of this matter? Why, it's simple. Any of these pirates could easily disrupt the Straw Hats born or raised in the East Blue and radically alter the early story of One Piece as we know it. It's not hard to imagine a rebellious pre-teen Zoro being overwhelmed as he involves himself in a fight with a pirate crew that are over his head, or a kid Usopp being an unlucky victim of a raiding party. And it's not limited to dead Straw Hats either; Usopp could, for example, grow up to be far more fearless than he ever was as he spends nights harassing the occupying pirates in secret as his only form of revenge, leading to his assuming the role of a small rebel leader on the island. Zoro could have a far more formed disgust towards pirates rather than viewing his early occupation as a pirate hunter as being no more than a means to an end to find strong opponents. With more stolen goods in circulation for Nami to steal, she might find herself in a situation where Arlong cheats her out of her saved 100 million belli and crushes her spirit far sooner without Straw Hats to kick his ass for her.

You may have noticed that I left Luffy out of my examples so far, but there's actually a pretty important distinction to be made here in that he's the one Straw Hat least likely to be affected. He lives in the backwoods of Dawn Island, far from areas worth looting such as Goa Kingdom or Foosha Village. Additionally, Dawn Island is also known to be the home of Garp the Fist, Hero of the Marines. While we know he doesn't visit often, this could easily be enough to sway relatively weaker pirates away from the island as a whole. I suppose he'd certainly be upset to find Foosha burnt to the ground though; perhaps seeing the bar where he first met Shanks being burnt down by so-called 'pirates' alters Luffy's perspective in life? I dunno, it's certainly something that could go somewhere.

Next on the list of least-affected is Nami. As Arlong's golden girl, she is to an extent protected from any excess by the Arlong Pirates in other areas of the East Blue. Additionally, she's a well-practiced thief and escape artist, meaning she'd A) Rarely find herself in a position where she's in trouble and B) More often than not find a way out or have a contingency plan. It's possible that Arlong may take Nami with him when he sails in order to ensure optimal navigation, in which case he may get a first-hand account of Nami's abilities as a thief. This could potentially end Nami's autonomy and result in her being permanently by the side of the Fishman Pirates, if unwillingly.

Sanji is an interesting one in that his early life is already the result of pirate activity interrupting a relatively normal childhood, but Zeff and his crew of Red-Leg pirates are anomalies; they're 'nice' in that they're not out to hurt people, just to take their valuables. You know. Nice. At least they're not 'Kill everybody' Krieg, but certainly worse than the Straw-Hats. Once the Baratie is a thing, Sanji's in my opinion mostly safe from the butterfly effect because the Baratie's reputation for being able to deal with rowdy pirates, plus the added factor of it being a restaurant and not much else; there's not likely to be great stores of gold hidden inside the Baratie….right? A question for another day.

After Sanji it's certainly Zoro who would be least-affected by more prevalent pirate activity in the area, although this isn't saying much, as he's actually very affected by this shift. As a pirate hunter he'll either be in heaven or hell with the altered situation in the East Blue; on one hand he'll have far more powerful opponents to face, but on the other it's far more likely that he meets his match against someone like Buggy who he can't cut, or Arlong who's a Grand Line-tier pirate with a crew of powerful fishmen. My bet is either stronger or dead; who knows, perhaps Johnny and Yosaku step up to the plate and are stronger for it?

Finally, Usopp would be the whipping boy of this new scenario. His island is small, peaceful, isolated, and is known by nearby islands to have a wealthy family living there. More notably Kaya is s-c-r-e-w-e-d. Her manor will be the very first target of any pirates looking for a quick raid, and she could end up in any number of unpleasant scenarios, one of them being dead. One interesting possibility is what would Kuro do if another pirate were to attempt to raid the manor; would he play along as the weak butler, or would he intervene in the desecration of 'his' future wealth? We already touched on possibilities for Usopp a few paragraphs up, so let's go into another interesting question this poses: if two or more crews end up being far more active, could we see small-scale pirate warfare flare up?

Imagining the Kuro Pirates and the Buggy Pirates duking it out over the course of the East Blue stages of One Piece is an interesting thought; while it's unlikely a Luffy as we know him would ever ally with either, it does present an interesting change over the usual repeat of the plot verbatim as Luffy collects crew members all the while having a different fruit/haki/intelligence/evil/some other trope. You'll see with time that I tend to stomp on common tropes in One Piece fanfiction, although I'll also address them in the future and offer my own take on making them more original as what-ifs. I will say that I generally find the stories revolving around haki to be more entertaining than any of the other tropes.

So what are the plot holes with this one? Well, you'd think that the Marines would pump up their military presence to combat the rising amount of pirate activity, but I wouldn't be so sure. We know that they've been having problems containing piracy since the execution of Gol D. Roger, and it was only amplified with the massive casualties caused by the Whitebeard War. If the East Blue heats up, I don't think it's likely to see much more manpower commitment as we've seen before that what the Marines do is what the World Government wants, and what the World Government wants is primarily to secure their power in the form of weapons, knowledge, and powerful individuals, not the safety and happiness of the masses.

On the other hand, Smoker going semi-rogue and abandoning his station at Loguetown becomes more likely as pirate activity rises near him. We know he's got a moral compass and has no problems throwing away orders in favor of doing what he thinks is right; more problems more Smoker is my take on it. He may actually be able to catch and subdue small fry like Buggy and Kuro. Krieg would have an advantage in that he has lots of disposable men to use as decoys, and Arlong is simply powerful and likely knowledgeable about Logia fruits; it's not hard to imagine him escaping into the sea and leaving Smoker fuming when he thinks he's cornered.

What's your take on this, ? Feel free to post your thoughts in any review you leave.


	2. WI: Nico Robin, part of the moster trio?

**If you left a review, I leave responses at the bottom of the chapter. Thanks for reviewing!**

 **What If: Nico Robin, member of the monster trio?**

Ah, Nico Robin. Probably one of my favorite Straw Hats for being so different from the others. She's got a very unique Paramecia devil fruit, has a very entertaining personality due to having some very funny personality ticks, and she gave us one of the greatest One Piece arcs hands down in the form of Enies Lobby; easily the most enraptured I've ever been watching One Piece as the Straw Hats all but burnt a Marine base to the ground and Luffy showed us a glimpse of the potential of the Gum Gum Fruit. There's a lot I could say about what one could do in a story with Nico Robin, some notables being that she's the oldest Straw Hat and has been active for long enough that she could significantly affect the plot while the others are still children; another being that she could have easily been a legitimate villain with her background rather than an opportunistic antagonist turned ally, or the fact that her two biggest motivators in life are discovering the truth about the Void Century, and her devotion to getting stronger for Luffy, according to the Wiki. But we're going to discuss what Robin could, and IMO should have been; one of the monster trio, although in this scenario it'd be more of a monster quartet. What is the monster trio? It refers to the three strongest Straw Hat pirates, those called on to handle any big bad that the others may not be able to deal with; these are respectively the captain Straw Hat Luffy, first mate Roronoa Zoro, and the chef Black Leg Sanji, in order of their bounties.

Let's roll the clock back to Skypeia in order to picture were things could start to diverge. Nico Robin back then was portrayed as being monstrously powerful back then and easily rankable next to Sanji or Zoro as a powerful Straw Hat; I'll admit that I wasn't much of a fan of Skypeia and as a result my knowledge of it is rather spotty, but Robin faced off against the commander of Enel's foot soldiers and won pretty handily; it's worth wondering what her results would have been against a more notable opponent or one of the CP9. Truth be told, we don't really get a good glimpse of Robin's fighting abilities throughout much of the show because her personality is more towards being sneaky, so we're forced to make some conjecture on what her true limits are. Not to mention, she's mainly been portrayed as the destroyer of fodder as the show goes on due to her ability to effortlessly restrain others and the most versatile of the Straw Hats save for maybe Franky in any given situation due to the abilities of her Devil Fruit.

Let's start it off with what was until recently terrible comparison of power for her; bounties. We all know that Robin's bounty is a sham placed by the World Government up until we hit the end of Dressrossa; she's a threat because of what she knows, not because of what she can do. Although I actually think she's now more than capable of doing what her original bounty claimed (destroying 6 ships that were part of the Buster Call) as of the end of Dressrossa, but I'll get into that later. As of Dressrossa her bounty stands at 130 million berry; that's 47 million less than Sanji, and more than any other Straw Hat save the above-mentioned Sanji, the other members of the monster trio, and Usopp who's currently riding the waves of God Usopp status (based may he be). That should at least tell us that she's solidly in the upper half of the Straw Hats in term of an ability to fight.

Next let's get into her abilities with a devil fruit; to quote from the One Piece wiki, "She can produce her body parts on any surface including her own body, other bodies, and other objects, allowing her to create copies of them. However, her replicated parts are considered an extension of her own body, and if they are hurt, she feels the pain on her actual body…After the timeskip, she is able to take her fruit powers to a totally different level by making clones of herself, increasing the number of limbs she's able to produce and in addition to that, she is now capable of producing giant limbs in a new style of using her Devil Fruit powers she calls "Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano"."

Up until we start hitting a steady stream of Logia fruits and Armament Haki users, Robin should be more than capable of incapacitating just about anybody with her abilities; on paper, the only people she should lose to are Logia fruits due to their immunity to physical damage and Luffy, due to his immunity to blunt force trauma and the flexibility of his bones. Even Zoro and Sanji are arguably bound to lose to her as one clutch could easily kill or incapacitate them. According to the wiki, Aokiji commented that Robin is more than capable of escaping CP9 if she so chose to but that she stayed in order to protect her friends from CP9's wrath. While Robin never really gets the chance to show off anything but her skills in stealth during this arc, you have to wonder what's faster; Robin's clutch or the Soru (the speed technique) of somebody like Kaku? I'd say that she would lose to Rob Lucci if he gets the drop on her due to the sheer amount of muscle he possesses in his Zoan state, but I really do think that any other lone CP9 member is screwed against her. Even Blueno with his teleporting abilities, on the assumption that his teleporting would bring Robin's extra limbs along for the ride.

This brings us into a bit of speculation about what future powers Robin may yet gain as the story of One Piece progresses, and I'm going to call the biggest one-up she could get right now; Armament Haki. The biggest weakness of Robin's fruit is that any damage she takes to her extra limbs are reflected on her, and what better to avoid damage than the ability to not take damage on the condition of having a stronger will then the opponent? Additionally, Armament Haki would allow her to damage Logia fruit users with her Hana Hana abilities; Robin would then truly be a threat to anything she can see or picture in her head, as shown by her ability to create eyes on things she can't physically see but can picture mentally.

Next we're going to touch upon speculation about the limits of the Hana Hana no Mi; we've been constantly shown that Paramecia fruits are perhaps the most versatile of all the fruits with the way Doflamingo uses strings, Law uses the Op Op Fruit, and Luffy continuing to find ways to power himself up through manipulating the properties of his rubbery body, so who's to say Robin couldn't take a leaf out of her captain's book? Here's one specific idea that comes to mind that actually does involve aping Luffy to an extent; we've gotten the Gigantesco Mano were Robin creates giant versions of her standalone limbs; it stands to reason that she can do the opposite and create miniature versions as well, right? Aside from the obvious espionage potential of Robin duplicating herself into a tiny size, what if she were to create a limb created from thousands of tiny hands that can exert the same force as her normal arm; this would allow her to pack far more power into a punch, although she'd certainly feel the aftereffects of exerting her arm thousands of times in one instant on her body. Perhaps its use is greatest as a strength training method if she were to borrow Zoro's weights? Then again, Robin has used her Gigantesco Mano without serious damage to herself despite crushing armor and weapons with it, and smashing into large structures. Even if she was incapable of shrinking her arms, I'd hazard to guess that a giant limb made up of hundreds of full-sized arms all exerting force in the same direction would hurt a hell of a lot more than one giant fist. Then there's always the possibility that the Gigantesco Mano is already what's been described above, but the usage of one giant arm or leg is an abstraction to save on the cost of drawing or animating it all out. The true limits of her fruit are a mystery, but it's fun to speculate on what she could accomplish.

The previous paragraph also brings up an interesting ability in the power to clone herself; we've seen that her clone can act independently of her and also transmit information back to her; does this sound familiar to anybody? Yeah, her powers become oddly more reminiscent of Uzumaki Naruto from the manga of the same name, with the difference being that she actually suffers any damage her clone takes. It also makes you wonder about the limits of her ability to replicate herself; can she make more than one clone? Can a clone make a clone? This could serve an interesting purpose in that Robin could actually duplicate her head, brain and all. Secretly, Robin was the quantum computer we never expected with her ability to run near infinite parallel processes, with the only limit being her mind's ability to minimize the information into her head at the end.

Give Robin Armament Haki, with or without any one of the abilities above, and I think it's safe to say that she more than merits a place amongst the Monster Trio. Arguably, give her more fights before the timeskip and you could solidify her status as a member of the monster trio. Hell, give her more time in the New World, and either she becomes the unofficial 'fourth' of the monster trio, or Jinbei finally joins up and secures that place for himself.

What are the ramifications of Robin being portrayed as/actually being stronger? Honestly? Not much, other than One Piece having one more powerful woman; I suppose Robin could be characterized more matronly as the 'elder' of the Straw Hats at the ripe old age of 30, powerful and mysterious. Oda admits that he himself does characterize her as motherly to an extent with how she interacts with Chopper and the others at times, so it's not hard to imagine her taking on that air. Robin's cool factor would certainly jump, although I personally think she's already very cool and in my mind has the status of 'The Secret Weapon of the Straw Hats'. Outside of Monster Chopper. Or the Franky Docking Tactic No. 15 Super Straw Hat Pseudo-Mecha. Or Based God Usopp. Eh, guess the latter is out of the bag now, but you get what I mean. The Straw Hats are a ridiculously powerful rookie crew, and Robin deserves a bit more credit IMO.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in a review, . Feel free to share any what-ifs you'd like me to tackle!

 **Anonymous Guest:** Thanks for being my first reviewer, and for the high praise. I admit that I share a lot of your views/complaints with One Piece fanfiction, and I hope that this will inspire others to mix it up a bit more. I've got my own ideas for One Piece fanfiction but the problem is that Oda keeps all cards close to the vest, and I don't feel particularly confident going in blind into things such as the Void Century, the age of Gol D. Roger, or even playing around in less detailed areas of the world such as the other seas outside of East Blue and the Grand Line.

That's actually an incredibly good idea; the Marines would for the most part ignore Kuro either through bribe or standard taxation, and if anything would be glad for the increase in commerce a powerful city state could bring. Now I've got a mental image of Kuro turning his pirate fleet into a merchant navy and going full-blown Venice crossed with the Barbary Corsairs on the East Blue, with an active interest in making profits and plundering other pirates while he sits back from the safety of his citadel of a city state, hiring out big names like Pirate Hunter Zoro to do the Marines' job for them as he amasses fortune under his self-propelling mercantile empire. Hot damn.


	3. WI: Garp sides with his family earlier?

**What If: Garp sides with his family earlier during the Marineford War?**

Garp, Garp Garp.

We know he was torn about facing his grandchildren, both of whom he's shown to care deeply about. We know he threw the fight with Luffy on the way to the execution platform, and ultimately sided with his family during the Marineford War, only stopping due to Blackbeard's treason. He would have killed Akainu in a blind rage for killing Ace if Sengoku hadn't stopped him. And he openly admitted to Sengoku that if he saw any means to save Ace from death, he'd have taken it. Much like how Ace's pride got him killed by refusing to run away from Akainu, Garp's pride in his service to the Marines cost him his grandson in the end.

Was Garp's tragedy avoidable? I think so, and depending on when Garp revolts, it could leave a lot of interesting implications for the plot. As I see it, we've got a few choice points:

-At Impel Down

-During Ace's transport to Marineford

-After Ace is freed from his Seastone handcuffs

Now to be clear, Garp siding with his family doesn't mean that Ace is automatically going to live. Some points of divergence are more likely to lead to his survival, while others like during the middle of the War of the Best/Marineford War is more of a tossup. With that said, let's get speculating.

Impel Down: At the time, Garp was unwilling to do anything beyond observe. This is likely due to Garp's admittance to Sengoku that he didn't see a way to avoid Ace's execution(with the implied 'without betraying the Marines'). We also know that Garp can be very spontaneous in his actions. What if he saw an opportunity to free Ace with some degree of deniability? One means to do this would be to have Luffy arrive at Impel Down earlier, early enough that both Garp and Ace are still in Impel Down at the time that Luffy's infiltration becomes widely known.

We've seen that Garp's leeway with the Marines is massive; helping Ace escape by throwing a fight level of leeway, in fact. Claiming to have fallen asleep visiting Ace while Luffy, Ace, and (maybe) Jinbei escape would be right up his alley. When asked about it, he could easily say that he must have fallen asleep while Luffy and his allies freed Ace. Now, why didn't Garp do this originally? You could easily argue that this is one of those moments where he saw no means to aid Ace; having a weakened Ace running about Impel Down, even with Jinbei, would be all but sending him to his death with Magellan. Not to mention, there's no plausible deniability in both Ace and Jinbei spontaneously escaping Seastone cuffs. But with a prison break? That's a perfectly chaotic window to act on Garp's favoring of his grandchildren; ignoring or making a token effort to denounce their piracy, while effectively sheltering them from the worst of the Marines.

Between Impel Down and Marineford: This is a much harder window of opportunity to see Garp acting; while he's likely the highest-ranking Marine on the ship transporting Ace, he's also surrounded by Marines. Marines who will in all likelihood report Garp's actions should he aid Ace in any form, as there's no way to plausibly have Ace escape on his own without any help. So then the question becomes, how do we have Ace, and by extension Garp, receive some form of help?

Well, there are two possible interlopers. The first is the Blackbeard Pirates, and the second is the Red-Hair Pirates. Here's how it could go: the Blackbeard Pirates could have had poorer luck with their timing, and arrived just as Garp's ship was leaving. This would result in the delay of Ace's transportation, force a faceoff between Garp and the forces of Impel Down vs. the Blackbeard Pirates, and give time for Luffy to arrive at a time where there's enough chaos about to justify Ace 'accidentally' getting free. I can easily see Hancock aiding the World Government as cover while Luffy sneaks onto the Marine ship, making a swift retreat once Ace is aboard. Now, why the Red Hair Pirates? Why not the Whitebeard Pirates? Well, the answer's simple. The Whitebeard Pirates were already preparing for a war at Marineford well in advance, and thus not going to act at Impel Down. In contrast, the Red Hair Pirates were interested in preventing a war, but were slowed due to Kaido forcing a battle between the two Yonkou, delaying their arrival. If their goal was to prevent a war, who's to say they wouldn't have headed to Impel Down first? It'd be the perfect way to avoid a confrontation between the main military powers of the Marines, and avoiding a major confrontation between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates. If the Red Hair Pirates manage to avoid the Beast Pirates on their way out of the New World, then who's to say what would have happened?

The Execution Platform: As we know, Garp was increasingly twitchy as the time got closer and closer to Ace's execution. He got downright erratic by the time Luffy appeared, and his distress between choosing one or the other ultimately favored his family, albeit passively, as he chose to let Luffy get past him. There's three scenarios that could have gone down, in theory. Garp actively aiding the Marines, the result we saw where Garp acts passive until it's too late, or Garp actively aiding his grandchildren and breaking with the Marines. We saw him go through all three of these phases during the course of the war, but his active support of his grandchildren began only once Ace died, and ended once Sengoku was able to restrain him.

Let's consider his positioning; at first, he was on the platform but got punched off by Luffy to the side. Later, Ace and Luffy would fall from the execution platform, where they'd confront Akainu. When Akainu kills Ace, Garp is surprisingly far away considering he too fell from the platform like his grandchildren. Let's say that Luffy hits him with his opposite hand, sending him flying in the opposite direction of where he originally landed. As a result, once Ace and Luffy are confronted by Akainu Garp is far, far closer than he was in the original scenario. When Akainu goes to kill Ace, Garp intervenes and engages him in a fight as Ace begrudgingly listens to his grandfather as he yells at him to flee. Sengoku, furious, joins Akainu in his fight against Garp. Much of the escape goes as it did originally, but Ace is with Luffy when two flee with Law. Whitebeard still dies, and Shanks still intervenes to stop the war. Only Whitebeard's body is removed, but instead of a dead Ace the Marines now have a defeated Garp as a prisoner. Sengoku is still forced to resign in part due to his release of Whitebeard's body to pirates, in part due to his close friendship with Garp that allowed for his betrayal to occur thanks to his tolerating Garp's wishy-washy loyalty.

What are the longterm implications of this? Well, Whitebeard is still dead, and Blackbeard still has his fruit. Whitebeard's power is broken, and thus much of the New World politics that occur during the timeskip likely go as planned. Ace is alive, and thus the lessons Luffy learns between his arrival and return to Amazon Lily are likely to go very differently. It's likely that between Rayleigh and Ace, Luffy is still bullied into training for an extended period of time, at least one year. Garp is likely to end up in Impel Down, and his fate to be decided by whoever becomes the next Fleet Admiral of the Marines. It's not crazy to imagine the first post-timeskip arc being a Rescue Arc Garp that sees the Straw Hats showing off and storming Impel Down, likely alongside Ace and some of the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates, if they're not completely overextended since their fall from Yonkou-fleet status. The ramifications on the Whitebeard remnants are also important. Do they get destroyed, as they do in our version of events? Does Ace's presence swing the tide in their favor, preserving some of their power? What Garp does, or even if he goes with his would-be rescuers at all is up in the air, however. On the bright side, Mr. 2 Bro Clay is likely to be freed if this happens.

Coby, Helmeppo, and some of Garp's ship crew are also wild cards. They may have been locked up alongside Garp as a precaution, punished alongside him as an example, cleared of any associated guilt and still serving as Marines, or they could have even escaped alongside the Red Hair Pirates, leaving them as a crew of not-Marines that behave like Marines in the New World, nominally allied with the Red Hair Pirates due to the gratitude of their leader(s), Coby and (maybe) Helmeppo. Or as an even more extreme outlier, Aokiji? He was, after all, a subordinate of Garp originally, and he DID abandon the Marines during the timeskip.

Or in other words, things change notably while not being completely unrecognizable from what we see Post-Timeskip. The other two scenarios, however? Well, the Whitebeard War is completely avoided. Ace lives, Whitebeard lives, Sengoku doesn't retire, and the Marines don't create their new headquarters in the middle of the New World. Blackbeard never steals the Goro Goro no Mi, likely never manages to recruit some of his most notable crewmembers from Impel Down…really, the list goes on and on. What we see later on is anybody's guess, truth to be told. Do the Straw Hats openly side with Whitebeard? Do they ignore working any of the Yonkou? Does Sabo ever remember his siblings? What does Blackbeard do next? As you can see, the world will be completely unrecognizable compared to what we see post-transcript. But let's keep our focus on the instigator of all these theories, Garp. It's likely that at best, he's forced to retire if Ace were to escape. Worst-case scenario for him in either of these two scenarios is that he's detained by the Marines and sentenced to Impel Down in Ace's place. Whether he's sentenced to death or not is a much harder question, as Garp is the Marine's golden boy. Sweeping Ace's escape under the carpet is far easier than sweeping the execution of the Hero of the Marines.

Well, that was fun. Let me know what your thoughts are! Feel free to let me know of any scenarios you're interested in seeing covered.


	4. FT: Let's Look at Luffy's Libido

**Fanfiction Tropes: Let's Look at Luffy's Libido Ch I**

Yeah, we're going there, and introducing a new segment at the same time. How can we not go here? This is where so many stories easily fall apart due to throwing away their writing standards in favor of pursuing their favored pairing. At the same time, it's also a cornerstone of many One Piece fanfics precisely because we're still so far from One Piece being complete that the easiest thing to play with is character to character interaction. And finally, some of the best pieces of One Piece fanfiction are romance stories precisely because it's those kinds of stories that can reach any form of conclusion, considering what Playdough Oda has given us so far versus what more there is to come. It's also why you see so many One Piece fanfics resort to time travel as the basis for their story, due to it being an easy out to having to account for things that we don't know yet and not needing to address it. But that's delving into another topic I've planned for Fanfiction Tropes in the future so let's get back on topic.

First, let's introduce the new segment properly. Fanfiction Tropes is where rather than speculate about interesting points of divergence for the world of One Piece, we delve into tropes, ruts, and fanon that permeates throughout One Piece fanfiction to a disproportionate degree and really just get old really fast due to a lack of originality. That isn't to say that there's no value in these tropes; I'm not at all opposed to Luffy discovering his libido as seen in the paragraph above, but it's the how that gets me every time. More on that later. What this segment tries to address is, rather than shooting down these tropes, instead ideas on how they could be reinvigorated or made more unique. Time travel, I'm looking at you. We may at times mention fanfics that are good examples of the trope, but will avoid actively calling out bad ones for the sake of not starting flame wars. But if you're reading this, I'm sure you can imagine which ones I could be referencing. Finally, I'll namedrop a few segments that I've tentatively thought of for the future. Feel free to drop any commentary on my choices, or if you've got any other ideas for segments:

 **In another time, they were Straw Hats: X Edition**

Here we discuss the plausibility and means to get character X to join the Straw Hat crew. A pretty common idea in fanfiction, common enough to merit distinguishing it separate from What If:

 **Speculation:**

Here we discuss things that for once, don't necessarily clash with canon at their time of posting. It's something you've likely seen a lot of One Piece fans do in the past, as we're all slaves to our weekly dripfeed of Oda's product and thus we naturally ramble, rave, and rant on what could happen. I won't be posting week to week speculation on the last chapter, but rather one marquee idea and how various things could have tied it together. May include minor tweaks to canon in order to justify them, but since this is fanfiction…eh? As an example, Nico Robin, member of the monster trio is something that could be retroactively labeled Speculation: which I won't do for legacy purposes.

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 **Moving on;** Luffy's libido. A scary concept indeed. To begin with discussing Luffy and romance, we must first look at what Oda has said on Luffy and romance to have a base to work with. Going by the wiki, Luffy and romance is complex in that Luffy….does not have an overt libido. Ba-dum tish. To expand on that a little more, Luffy is not one that can simply show initiative when it comes to romance. His general ignorance (let's not get into a debate on whether Luffy is actually stupid or not; another time, yeah?) towards most things in life, women included, means that the lucky lady in question interested in the Straw Hat captain must be the one to force the issue. In that regard, Luffy is much like Son Goku albeit less hopeless; while both were raised as wild childs, Son Goku is far worse off in that even as late as the Buu Saga in DBZ, he sometimes has trouble differentiating men and women (go look up Gohan's introduction of Videl to his father) and had to pat down people's crotches to be sure of what they were as a kid. While far more hopeless, Goku's also a positive sign that Luffy may still eventually break past his ignorance. After all, Goku's a father of two and a married man, right?

To be clear, this piece is going to act in a void of what may lay in the future for canon. I personally believe Oda will end the story with all of the Straw Hats as de facto abstinent/virgins, libidos and dirty jokes aside, unless he loses his damn mind and decides to play out Luffy being a mirror of Gol D Roger to the hilt, having him leave a woman pregnant and going off to die himself, because symbolism. Actually, I take that back. I'll make a bet right now that the only person to get laid is the person that dies before the end, and that the person WON'T be Luffy. My money's on Usopp. Let's not get too far off the rails here though. The Straw Hats, if they get any, do so off screen because well, it's a shounen manga aimed at young boys. That should be apparent. But we've also seen no signs hinting at anything at all beyond Sanji's flirting, be it with someone else on the crew or with others. We can, however, reach the logical conclusion that they're not asexual beings between their demonstrated libidos, dirty jokes, potty humor, etc.

Let's recap: 1) Luffy has no inherent libido. He'll have to be guided to it. 2) Most of the Straw Hats are de facto abstinent as far as we know, even if they do have libidos. 3) They are not asexual. Now is probably a good time to offer a disclaimer that I won't be covering Luffy hooking up with another guy because frankly, I've never really thought on it. I'd be completely underqualified to discuss it seeing as I've never bothered with One Piece fics that feature Luffy as gay/bi. I don't see it as impossible, but I personally don't really see it, even though the truth is that Luffy's sexual orientation may as well be a coin flip or dice roll in reality. If you really want me to touch on this….well, who knows? Maybe in the future once I've more or less knocked out any Luffy-Girl pairings that I'm actually familiar with or have contemplated, I'll dedicate a piece to discussing the plausibility and means to do it, although I assure you, if your heart's set on it I likely won't do it justice due to my disinterest in slash fics. Now's also as good a time as any to mention that I won't be discussing every possible pairing Luffy's ever had in One Piece fanfiction in one chapter, and that I'll be splitting Let's Look at Luffy's Libido into multiple chapters to do each idea justice. I won't be doing them back to back, however.

Onwards we go; for this chapter, we're going to focus on the big two, plus a personal favorite character of mine. So in other words, Nami, Boa Hancock, and Nico Robin. Let's get down to it.

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 **Nami:**

Where to begin. Truthfully, this is what I consider the 'fanon' pairing in my head and not one I dislike at all, even if it's not my preferred pairing due to all of the bricks Oda's set that could easily lead us in this direction, should he ever decide that romance is on the books. Enough that I may be forced to return to discussing Nami and Luffy again in the future. Let's talk about the most apparent evidence to support such a pairing (IMO).

\- Luffy is Nami's emotional rock

\- Luffy seems to trust Nami more than anybody else

\- Luffy's likely earned at least Nami's platonic love through his actions

\- Nami and Luffy are very physical with each other, be it affection or comic violence. Nami is easily the person she is most comfortable with physically of all the Straw Hats. Notable in Japanese media due to physical affection being seen as more intimate than it is in the West

Now, it's not all rainbows and sunshine. There are also arguments against aside from Luffy's ignorance about romance.

\- Nami views seduction as a weapon, getting involved with Luffy conflicts with that

\- Nami may trust her captain, but she still thinks he's a complete idiot

\- As of Zou, Nami's fondness for Sanji appears to have increased. Nowhere near enough to stop a potential pairing with Luffy, but it's an argument against

Let's break it down further. It's pretty apparent that when Nami is distressed, upset, angry, or sad, the first person she always turns to is Luffy. From the dramatic turning point of Arlong Park to their reunion at Zou, it's clear that Luffy is her anchor(ha!) amidst the crazy they continue to run into, and that she often expresses this both verbally and physically. Likewise, Luffy seems to have a disproportionate trust in her compared to all other crew members, which is really stating something when it's a fact that Luffy's trust in each of them is absolute and unconditional. Nami stands out because she's the designated 'Guardian of Hat', as well as the one that repairs it and attaches a string to it so that Luffy never has to let it go during a fight again. For a man as simple as Luffy, this is notable due to the fact that the only possession he seems to care about is his hat.

Next, Luffy's actions on her behalf. Luffy isn't always the first one to act on behalf of Nami (that honor goes to Sanji due to his desire to preemptively take action for her) but he is the first one Nami turns to in a crisis, given a choice. It's also Luffy that seems to get the emotional 'cred', more so than any other member of the Straw Hats, for these actions. Storming Arlong Park was taken care of by all of the Straw Hats, but it's Luffy who resonated most with Nami due to him being the one to intervene during her moment of desperation, making a promise to win to her, and finally being the one to turn Arlong Park into rubble. Other examples of this can be found to varying degrees in Drum Island, Skypeia, Sabaody, and Zou, off the top of my head which is why I hypothesize that Nami carries some sort of flame for him, however small, buried, and ignored it may actually be in reality. Finally, and this ties a bit into what was noted earlier, is that Nami and Luffy are both very physically affectionate with each other, more so than they are with other crewmembers outside of Luffy roughhousing with Usopp. Examples of this is Luffy being the designated #1 hug target for Nami, Luffy being one of the few crew members that Nami roughhouses with(this was more prominent pre-timeskip), and the by now infamous time when Luffy snaked his neck around Nami's body to Nami's relative indifference to the invasion of personal space and her body; infamous, because it's plastered about the internet as Luffy-Nami proof. Other examples of such scenes that raise eyebrows are in Zou when Nami runs into his arms (before Sanji is mentioned, she was already doing this. It became a hug for comfort and forgiveness when Luffy called out about Sanji as she ran toward him), Arlong Park, etc. They exist if you know where to go looking for them.

As to arguments against? Well, let's recap on them. The first one is that Nami is a blatant seductress, and that she may have some personal hang ups, ghosts, and demons on the issue of a relationship, sex, or anything related to that. To Nami, seduction has been a weapon ever since we first met her that is still regularly put to use to distract opponents. Or another example, when she flashes the Straw Hats in the baths towards the end of Alabasta arc. It's not hard to imagine that Nami is largely cynical towards romance because of this, and if my theory on her having a small flame for Luffy when he's at his best is true, Luffy's cluelessness and indifference likely don't do anything to help this detached and potentially cynical view Nami may have.

Moving on to the next point about Nami's views on her captain, it's actually a relatively minor point. Nami undoubtedly considers Luffy to be an idiot. But then, just about every man she knows is a complete and utter idiot, even if Luffy is first among them all. And as Son Goku, or really any anime protagonist proves, being an idiot doesn't stop you from getting laid or having a relationship.

Finally, what's likely the best argument against, Nami is probably the most distressed Straw Hat by Sanji leaving the Straw Hats to deal with Big Mom and the Germa 66. It's easy to see this as a growing affection for him, but conversely it's also easy to argue that part of the reason she's so distressed is because she feels like she failed Luffy by being unable to aid Sanji; she's admitted that she feels responsible for Sanji leaving. I feel like the truth is closer to the latter than the former, as even assuming the worst-case scenario, taking into account all other factors that point towards a Nami-Luffy pairing discredits the worst-case scenario and likely leaves the answer somewhere in the middle, with Nami equal parts guilty and missing Sanji as a friend (absence makes the heart grow fonder). Now, it's also equally likely to sweep away most arguments in favor under the lens of friendship; we discuss these points assuming that such a relationship is not an impossibility.

How could such a relationship begin? Well, I'll begin with how it won't, at least in any manner that reads like quality fanfiction. Handwaving Luffy into being super competent and attractive, or alternatively handwaving Nami into a mindless sex-starved girl isn't the way to do it, not without a lot of groundwork which most fics going this route never do. It's usually more along the lines of 'Luffy ate a different fruit, gained four inches of height, has Conqueror's Haki before Paradise, got a personality transplant, became a low-key fashionista, and has an eight-inch bulge. Nami's lady bits can't stop drooling, and she turns into a blubbering idiot, love at first sight'. Stop doing this. I get that you think it's cool, but to your audience, it makes no sense to jump from the Luffy we know to somebody edgier than Shadow the Hedgehog when all he's done is either jump back in time from a predictable 'Akainu wrecked our shit' or 'Luffy just ate a different fruit. Das it, jump to the day he meets Coby'.

How to go about this better? Well, I don't think it's particularly hard. Luffy may be an idiot but he can be incredibly compassionate. Changing his wording at a few critical moments like Arlong Park could easily make Nami look at Luffy differently. To be clear, Luffy won't be the one initiating unless he's raised completely differently. As for Nami, I don't think it's hard to get Nami mentally contemplating the idea if Luffy throws her a bone that could be comprehended as even remote interest. But Nami isn't the kind to go and immediately jump on such feelings. Her entire life since the arrival of Arlong has given her life experience that goes against being impulsive, and instead favors subtlety and being sneaky to get at what she wants. Luffy's general idiocy would likely make her think that the first indication of affection, intentional or not, was just Luffy being an idiot. It's probably true. That said, the next time that Luffy says something remotely interpretable as interest, affection, or love? Nami will take note of it. And she'll overthink it, and start seeing what she wants to see in the statement. And start putting together innocuous things that are truly innocuous into evidence. One of Nami's earliest character traits was both her ability to analyze a situation, and her inability to see anything but the predictable, being disbelieving and amazed when her worldview was broken (see: Bara Bara no Mi, Gomu Gomu no Mi). And what's more predictable than a lonely girl overthinking minor acts of affection into interest? Because make no mistake, until the end of Arlong Park, Nami is a lonely person, cynical, and potentially even depressed behind the scenes. She opens up at the end of the arc, but she remains relatively guarded and private compared to other crew members until Robin comes and takes the crown for 'Most Guarded Nakama' forever.

Once Nami works up her courage? She has absolutely no problems strongarming Luffy. I have no doubt that if she was determined to make a relationship with Luffy work, it is going to happen, no questions asked and damn Luffy's ignorance. That's key to note; Luffy will be uninterested, obtuse, and indifferent at first. It takes a certain amount of backbone, beyond simple interest, to get Luffy to move past his ignorance/innocence. Worth noting is that a recent interview with Oda mentioned that while Luffy is no longer ignorant, he's not particularly interested in love or romance as he's got other goals and interests in life. Don't ask me to find where though, as I saw it on the Reddit and it could ultimately be heresy.

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 **Boa Hancock:**

Hancock is easily the second, or even most popular pairing for Luffy because she's the first woman to blatantly be interested in Luffy in a romantic sense. Also a favorite because she's considered the most beautiful woman in the world in canon. Very popular with One Piece fanart, not so much fanfiction since she always appears far later than most fanfiction writers get, to be quite honest. Lots of points for, but legitimate arguments against. Let's get into the arguments for.

-Unlike all other women, Hancock is the only woman that Luffy acknowledges as being interested in him romantically. Should Luffy ever abandon his celibacy, she's the 'default' option for a relationship unless it's a specific woman that manages to steal his heart

-Hancock has earned Luffy's gratitude and is determined to please him (hue hue), going out of her way to do favors for him, care for him, and show her adoration of him

Against? Well, IMO the arguments against are far more damning than they are against, say, Nami.

-Luffy is aware of her interest and has openly refused her marriage requests. He simply does not care about relationships, and Hancock has openly tried and failed to get him to change

-Hancock is passive about her love for Luffy; she has no problem admitting to it but unlike Nami, she doesn't have the spine (towards Luffy) to assert herself and get Luffy to give her a chance.

-Distance. Should Luffy ever awaken his libido, it's unlikely to be with Hancock as she doesn't do much of anything to change his views on romance (see point above). Should this happen, then Hancock is likely to lose out to whoever DID awaken Luffy's libido and interest in a relationship

Now, those are some serious arguments against but not anything unsurmountable. How? Well, I have a really easy solution. Competition, real or perceived. Have Hancock present for a bout of Nami-Luffy shenanigans, or even Robin playfully going along with Luffy's shenanigans to get her angry and jealous. To be clear, Hancock is no fool. She's smart. She's vicious. She's sly. She's powerful. And she has an incredible devotion to Luffy. It's easy to imagine her working to a worst-case scenario in her head where one or the other 'steal' Luffy from her. And it's that perceived competition that could easily push her into being more forceful in obtaining Luffy's affection. Why do I keep emphasizing the necessity of a woman being forceful in their interest? Luffy's innocence/ignorance. Unless pressed, it's just not happening. If Hancock can actually earn Luffy's affection past being a friend, then most other problems fall away. Distance becomes irrelevant, because Luffy is incredibly loyal. Past rejections don't matter if Luffy is now with her romantically/emotionally. Passiveness doesn't matter anymore if the threshold has been crossed and Luffy's libido/romantic inclinations awakened.

I'm sure some were expecting to bring up a clash between Hancock's personality and Luffy's nakama, but it's important to forget that the Hancock of post-Sabaody and the Hancock of post-Marineford and especially post-Timeskip are very different people. Hancock's cruelty, indifference, and arrogance all get mellowed out with time to the point where you could actually squint your eyes and call her nice at the last point we saw her, at the reunion of the Straw Hats at Sabaody. But in the context of a relationship between Luffy and Hancock, I don't view her not-Luffy personality as particularly relevant. By the time the libido threshold has been closed, Hancock's likely changed enough that her past personality should no longer be a factor.

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 **Nice Robin:**

Whuh? Are you serious? Yes, I am….I'm actually really fond of this pairing due to its quirkyness :3

I was largely indifferent to the idea of such a pairing till I read an excellent fanfic that has Robin instigating a relationship with Luffy immediately after Alabasta, slowly introducing him to the world of romance and pleasure while hiding it from the rest of the crew. It was a very short fanfic but incredibly well written, rated M, and as far as I can tell also completely gone from the face of the Earth (read: ). If you have any idea of what this fic could be, please let me know. I need to bookmark that shit so I have a reference as to how Robin-Luffy could and should work.

Why this pairing? Well, if I had the link to that fanfic, I'd make it required reading for how to write a good romance-centric One Piece fanfic involving Luffy, even if it was abandoned early on. Other than that, it's an oft-ignored pairing that has a lot to offer both sides. Or in other words, it's a play on the trope that opposites attract. Luffy is young, reckless, foolish, and happy go-lucky. Robin is an adult woman, thoughtful, intelligent, and analytical. And from the limited amount of direct interaction the two have, the two work incredibly well together by balancing each other out during combat. And through this close relationship, both would have some very endearing character growth (IMO). Enough lavishing praise, on to the hard facts. First, the arguments for.

-Robin is shown to be incredibly devoted to Luffy, almost singlemindedly more so than most other Straw Hats who at least show some reserve towards Luffy's brand of crazy

-Robin shares the same emotional loadstone towards Luffy that Nami does due to his freeing her from her past life

-Robin's been intrigued and amused by Luffy since the first day they met

Against? Well, the biggest and most obvious one first.

-Robin is 11 years older than Luffy. It's easy to view her affection towards him as motherly in nature

-Robin is one of the most guarded characters in One Piece. While Luffy is the character that's most effective at getting her to cut loose, messing around and confessing any feelings (if any) is a massive leap for someone of Robin's personality

Let's get to the breakdown. Robin was intrigued by Luffy when they first met at Whiskey Peak, and found him intriguing. Probably tied to his D (hue hue hue hue), as it reminded her of Saul. This interest in Luffy continued until Robin gave up on life during the final confrontation with Crocodile, at which point Luffy intervenes and makes Robin live another day. At which point we get the eye-raising line of Luffy now being responsible for her life. Robin is no stranger to the power of seduction, albeit more subtle than Nami, which is why the crew reacts…strongly to this word choice. Robin is a bit of a tease, as we've come to learn. A macabre tease, but a tease all the same.

Luffy repeats this again at Enies Lobby in a far more grandiose manner when Robin breaks down, crying out that she wants to live (the most emotional scene in One Piece, IMO) and he proceeds to destroy Rob Lucci. In this respect, he's probably earned as many emotional brownie points with Robin as he has with Nami, with a healthier respect for his antics from the former than the latter. After Enies Lobby, Robin demonstrates that she has absolutely no problems following Luffy into the most suicidal of situations and giggles at every shenanigan of his. As Oda ends up revealing in interviews, the only person Robin gets stronger for is Luffy. In other words, there's more than enough material to work with on Robin's side of the equation as it's clear she's very fond of Luffy and genuinely enjoys his company and behavior.

But the argument against is very heavy indeed. Robin is much older than Luffy. Not to the point of making it an impossibility, but it does prove awkward to consider either of them taking the possibility very seriously barring some very specific circumstances. But to further hurt the chances of such a pairing, Robin is inarguably the most closed-off and private of all the Straw Hats. She may be able to superficially enjoy and partake with the other Straw Hats, but she doesn't really engage the others about her personal interests, thoughts, and feelings like the rest do. It would be a massive step for her to go from personally admiring Luffy to confessing an attraction to him.

How could it work? We've actually got a few interesting opportunities for this. More so than most other pairings, Luffy-Robin is very time-sensitive with a narrow windows of opportunity. The very first is shortly after Robin joins. I wish I could elaborate more on this, but it's essentially 'That one Robin-Luffy fic that I can't find or name for the life of me' that features a slow, methodological seduction of Luffy by Robin that begins clandestinely and had hints at moving towards a true relationship before the fanfic ended. Basically, Robin is private enough and isolated enough from the others that Luffy becomes her go-to for conversation, social interaction, etc. and a relationship develops because Robin is weary of her other crew members petitioning to toss her out. Robin quickly finds way more than she bargained for.

The next opportunity is immediately after Water 7. Robin is likely at the highest point she'll ever be of 'Luffy-motional' due to his actions on her behalf; it's unlikely that she'll feel as positively or as strongly about her captain as she does at that moment. I'm not certain how, or why, but if a smart writer wants to engineer a coincidental event leading to romance, then is the time.

The last notable chance I can think of is during the dispersal of the Straw Hats at Sabaody by Kuma. Robin was the last Straw Hat to get hit by Kuma's Paw Paw powers of teleportation, and before it occurred Luffy had made a mad sprint towards her, trying to grab her before Kuma could get at her as she had tripped and was desperately reaching out for him. Say Robin doesn't stumble and gets another second to back away from Kuma. If Luffy is grabbing onto her when Kuma swings at her, then the two would have teleported away together to Tequila Wolf, or I suppose Amazon Lily if Kuma decides to alter his choice to account for Luffy's presence. Perhaps another island we didn't see? From there, I imagine that Robin would have stuck with Luffy through thick and thin, to the point where she ends up with him for the next two years, assuming Marineford goes more or less as scheduled and Ace dies, whether Luffy is there or not. That's plenty of time to swing a romance over the course of two years; if you're strongly dedicated to the idea and have no problems killing off the One Piece timeline as we know it, have Kuma send them to a deserted island in the Calm Belt. By the time they're rescued, who knows how things could have changed between them?

Well, that's all I have for today. Let me know your thoughts and feedback. And feel free to leave any scenarios or ideas you want to see explored!

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 **Myydral: That's one hell of a what-if. I've sadly forgotten the finer details of Fishman Island, but I will be getting back to you on this idea once I can touch on it; it's definitely on the list and I'm currently rewatching the anime.**

 **Dutchess-of-Dirt: Check your PMs :)**


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